The Woodlands

We landed inside the mouth of the face. The walls were not as high here. I could actually see over them into what looked like a garden. It was beautiful and utterly foreign. I could see so many trees I had never seen before. Some with fruit hanging from overburdened branches, also herbs and flowers. I had only seen a real flower once. It had seeded in our front lawn, blown from the outside. I saw it for only a second before a groundskeeper plucked it from the earth and threw it in his bag of clippings. It was tiny and delicate, with yellow petals and a brown center. In this garden there were colors unlike anything made or grown in Pau Brasil. I was still craning my head around, trying to get a better look, as they guided us into the first building.

The buildings were all grey concrete, just like in Pau, but this collection of structures was grander and more imposing than our modest town buildings. They were overelaborate, with hideous, carved creatures climbing up the corners or sitting on the roof staring down at us. This was where the children had come to learn their trades, their fates, for over two hundred years. You could feel it, a mixture of history and solem

Our small line of boys and girls was merged into a larger line as teenagers filtered in from other landing bays, until there were about fifty or sixty of us. Each of us was wearing our grey uniform with our tree emblems printed on the front. A Guardian was facing us as we were guided through a large set of carved, wooden doors. “Take your place at a table and be silent.” He said it about three times, repeating himself as more of us entered the room. His voice echoed around the vast hall, which, once everyone was seated, was still two-thirds empty. I guess, years ago, there must have been more bodies to fill the space.

The Guardian stomped his foot once and called attention.

“Who are we?” he barked.

“Citizens of the Woodlands.” The room echoed with the combined, unsure voices of sixty or so terrified teenagers. And I joined them. For once, I didn’t want to make up my own version. All my cheek had evaporated into tiny particles that clung onto the edges of my clothes like germs. I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t as scared as every other kid in here.

“What do we see?” he said threateningly, his eyes squinting like he was trying to sift out the troublemakers early.

“All kind.”

“What don’t we see?” He sca

“Own kind,” everyone said.

Then one kid yelled out “Own kind” out of time with the others. The Guardian marched over to him and stood over his desk for the rest.

“Our parents were?” he asked the boy.

“Caretakers,” the boy whimpered.

“Our allegiance is to?”

“The Superiors. We defer to their judgment. Our war was our fault. The Superiors will correct our faults,” the boy muttered deeply to the top of his desk.

“What was that?” the Guardian said, leaning on the boy’s hand with his baton, pressing it hard across the boy’s fingers.

The boy winced but didn’t cry, “The Superiors. We defer to their judgment. Our war was our fault. The Superiors will correct our faults.” He yelled like the words couldn’t get out quick enough.

“Right!” the Guardian said in a voice like snapping shears. He released the boy’s fingers and held up his baton, sca

I felt like I missed something. There were a few confused faces, some shuffling in chairs, someone coughed. I turned around to find his face. Joseph looked as puzzled as me. He shrugged his shoulders conveying his uncertainty. I didn’t realize we would be doing the Test straight off. I was hoping I might have some time to prepare. This was to decide the rest of my life. I needed to get it right.

The Guardians walked through the rows of desks handing out stacks of colored paper and pencils, their heavy, black boots sending vibrations across the polished wood floor. The man at the front kept talking. Pulling his glasses over his nose when he read and pushing them into his hair when he was looking at us.

“This is the written part of your test. Answer the questions honestly. If you answer dishonestly, we will know and you will be punished. There is no time limit. You may start as soon as you receive your packet. Raise your hand when you have completed each colored sheet and a Guardian will collect your answers.”

I stared down at the stack of paper. So this was it, my life in a packet. I shrugged and started. Pink first. The questions were i

I put my hand up when I finished and the Guardian collected my last paper, perusing it carefully, making sure I had answered every question and ticked every box. He lifted his hand, indicating for me to stand. He sca

I actually enjoyed the next part. I was brought to a room full of various stations, fluorescent lights bearing down on me, giving everything a too shiny, too bright kind of glow. On each table were different puzzles to solve. There were boxes made of wood, intricately carved into different segments that we had to pull apart and then put back together. There were mazes to solve and scenes to reconstruct from memory. Again, at the end of each task they sca

The last part was harder. It was an all-encompassing physical test. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was shining down on the grass, which was so green it looked like candy. It was hard to believe that this morning I was home, staring at myself in the mirror.

We were tested on strength, agility, flexibility, speed, endurance, vision, and hearing. I did ok in most of the categories, except for flexibility. Sitting in the wet grass with my feet planted flat against a vertical plank of wood, I was told to touch my toes. I strained but I could only reach halfway down my shins. The guardian hovering over this station scowled at me and told me to try again. When I had the same result, she made me bow down while she pressed hard against my back. “Try harder,” she snapped. I wanted to snap back at her and tell her I was not a tube of toothpaste she could bend and squeeze, but I let her push me until every muscle in my back was stretching and screaming at me to release. She finally stopped pushing and grunted as she wrote down my results. My body sprung back like a rubber band and I moved quickly to the next station, worried she was going to try and tie my body into a bow if I hung around for too long.

The Guardians watched our every move, sca